James Lovelock – Unlocked!

James Lovelock

James Lovelock is a true genius: an original, maverick, and influential 94 year-old British scientist, he is most famous for his Gaia hypothesis, which views the Earth as a self-regulating, single organism. When the theory was first propounded in the early 1970s, it was largely ignored by the scientific community.  I think this may have been due to the connotations of the name Lovelock chose; Lovelock himself said that naming his theory after a Greek goddess resulted in his ideas being picked up and championed by many non-scientists.  The Gaia Hypothesis appealed to hippies, freethinkers and environmentalists, and many people in search of alternative life-styles chose to latch on to his ideas, interpreting them as a kind of neo-Pagan religion.  I have nothing against hippies, greens and alternative life styles:  it just seems a shame that for a long time the Gaia Theory was associated with some whacky ideas which led to it being labelled as ‘unscientific', and attracting ridicule from other leading scientists and thinkers including Richard Dawkins.

The hypothesis  suggests that the Earth and its natural cycles can be thought of like a living organism. When one natural cycle starts to go out of balance other cycles work to bring it back, continually optimising the conditions for life on Earth. The theory helps to explain some of the more unusual features of planet Earth, such as as why the atmosphere isn't mostly carbon dioxide, and why the oceans aren't more salty.

The Gaia Hypothesis was based on Lovelock's own ideas and observations, but was originally lacking a thorough scientific explanation. Times change however, and these days it is a different story. By the time of the second Chapman Conference on the Gaia Hypothesis, held at Valencia, Spain, in June 2000, concerns about environmental and ecological issues looming large, Lovelock's ideas were being taken more seriously, and there was a huge interest in the developing science of Bio-geophysiology.   

The Earth seen from Apollo 17

Think about it: Hurricane Katrina, Tsunamis, the Fukushima Disaster, flooding in the UK, droughts, the melting of the Polar ice-caps, El Nino, the mudslide in Washington State. Global warming, climate change, rises in ocean levels and the increasing frequency of terrifying extreme weather events in recent years mean that there is now an urgent need to seriously, scientifically and holistically address issues of climate change, environmental destruction and global pollution. We have all been forced to think more deeply about our home planet and how human intervention is affecting the global environment. Gaia Hypothesis and its holistic approach to thinking about the Earth is now being taken extremely seriously and is used in subjects such as geophysiology, Earth system science, biogeochemistry, systems ecology, and climate science.

Lovelock’s huge contribution to science has been widely recognised and rewarded. As well as  being created Companion of Honour and Commander of the Order of the British Empire, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and in 2006 the Geological Society of London awarded Lovelock its highest honour, the Wollaston Medal, largely for his work on the Gaia theory.

Dig Deeper

You can learn more about Lovelock and his pioneering ideas at the Science Museum in London.  This year (April 2014 – April 2015) they are staging an exhibition about him. Among the highlights of the exhibition, called Unlocking Lovelock,  are his laboratory notebooks, drafts of his papers and equipment from the laboratory in his back garden, where some of his most important work was done. The exhibition also features tools used by Lovelock to build many of his inventions, including a watchmaker’s lathe and the home-made gas chromatography equipment that journeyed to the Antarctic and back and proved crucial to scientists’ current understanding of global atmospheric pollution.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/lovelock

Books About Gaia by James Lovelock

1979     Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth

1988    The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth

1991     Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine,

2000     Homage to Gaia : The Life of an Independent Scientist (Independent Voices)

2006    Medicine for an Ailing Planet

2007    The Revenge of Gaia

2010    The Vanishing Face of Gaia: a Final Warning            

2014    A Rough Ride to the Future